The Miracle of Sherry Barr
by The Critic of FanFiction
Summary: Sherry Barr is the daughter of a football coach and prom queen, but she has an intelligence that nobody on the block can top. Only when a mysterious neighbor arrives does Sherry get a lesson in history, but will it be a blessing or a curse? R&R Some OOC, but not much...let's just say, growing up changes people.
1. Chapter 1

I own nothing of Ed, Edd n Eddy. I do own Sherry, but I guess in a way, she's already part of the story.

The sun was shining down on another beautiful day in the small suburb in the city of Peach Creek. A city that never changed no matter where you went and no matter how long you stayed away. The cul-de-sac on Rethink Ave. was still charming to anyone who had seen the other heinous communities of the world.

Sherry was a girl who had only known Rethink Ave. her whole life. She had been born in Peach Creek Hospital, and she knew that the outside world was just aching for her to find it. She was a small girl, with short reddish-brown hair and slim build. Her mother always said she was built like her dad, but her father, Kevin, was a muscular and firmly built man who had played professional football in college and nowadays was the coach for the Peach Creek Cobblers. Sherry never liked sports, she wasn't athletic in any way and really, she wasn't much for cheering either.

She sat outside of her home, the very home her father had lived in as a kid, and looked out on the street. It was circular and gave great parking space to anyone who lived in this piece of "paradise" as she called it. Her neighbors were all weird, or so she had come to believe, after meeting some of the other people that had come from around the state to watch her dad coach the Cobblers. There was Old Man Rolf who was a man shrouded in mystery of his beginnings and still produced vegetables from his farm in his own backyard. His son, Max, was also a farmer, the son of a son of a shepherd he called himself. And then there was Sarah Hill who had become a shut-in author and hippie aficionado with her long-time friend, James.

Sherry didn't understand how Sarah could enjoy a peaceful day in the neighborhood when it seemed that everyone was weird and had their own issues. Good thing she didn't have kids, those guys would be picked on everyday. There were two houses that nobody lived in. They were across the street and completely empty. She wondered where the occupants had gone or what had become of them. Her father called them both "dorks" and said that Ms. Hill's brother was the biggest dork around. Sherry wasn't akin to calling anyone dork, or other name, she preferred gentle touches to everything, probably because she inherited her intelligence from her mother, Natalie.

She looked up at the sun and sat up from the curb, pulling her shorts up after they had loosened while she sat and started walking back up to the house when she heard a noise of a car pulling up to the neighborhood. She turned around and saw an old red cadillac that had seen better days pull up to one of the empty houses and stop. She pushed her bangs from her eyes and watched candidly, there seemed to be one man get out of the car. He was short, judging by the distance, he was almost as short as she was. And he had a cane and a couple of boxes. He needed help, that was for sure.

She ran across the road over to him, garnering the eyes of Old Man Rolf who was busy plowing his field and Sarah Hill from the window of her house. Sherry walked up to the newcomer and said, "Hi."

The man turned around after setting the box down, wiping his brow with an old cloth, and said, "Oh, hi."

"Do you need some help with your boxes, sir?"

"They're not heavy, I can manage," he replied, but noticing her looking down, he spoke up, "Then again, the doc said my back is better off not getting bent up, can you help me?"

"Sure!" she replied, her eyes returning to their cheery state, she lifted up two of the boxes. They really were light, she noticed, and carried them into the house. She hadn't ever been inside the house, but now was her chance to see it. She looked around, expecting to see a trainwreck, but instead, everything was in order and had been cleaned thoroughly twice, by the way she could see.

"So, are you going to live here?" she asked the stranger. He looked at her from outside, "Didn't your parents teach you not to talk to strangers?" 

Sherry looked at him with an annoyed look, "Dude, this is a new era, no stranger-danger around here."

He looked back at her, at first surprised, but smiled and wiped his sweating face again, "Well, I remember when I was your age, maybe older, they nailed that stranger-danger stuff into our minds without a second thought. Maybe it really is a new era?" 

"So what's your name?"

The man sat in one of the chairs, obviously out of breath, and replied, "I'm Skip, Skip Sampson. What's yours?"

Sherry, Sherry Lynn Barr," she pretend curtsied to him and smiled. He chuckled, "Do you know a guy named Kevin Barr by any chance?"

"He's my father, Coach Barr to his Cobblers, dad to me," she replied with a proud smile. He reached over to the desk beside him and reached inside the drawer, pulling out a wrapped-chocolate bar. He looked over to her wandering eyes and said, "Here, payment for helping me move in."

She looked at him and shook her head, "No, no, it's really okay. I couldn't accept payment for helping someone in need."

He squinted his eye at her, "How old are you?" he asked in a curious way. She replied without blinking, "Nine and a half, though my school says I have the intelligence of a twenty-eight year old and the reading level of a Ph.D level college student. How old are you?" 

He chuckled hard, "You sure do talk like a speedboat. I'm forty-four since your asking. My, my, you have some brains behind that hair don't you?" he then mumbled under his breath, "Who'd of thought Kevin could pop out brains."

Not catching his last sentence, she beamed at his comment and smiled, "Thank you Mr. Sampson!"

"Skip please, Mr. Sampson was my father, and my brother, for a while."

"Oh you have a brother?"

"Well," he sat back, "Actually I had three, but two of them weren't actual brothers."

"How can someone be a brother and not a brother?"

"That is a story for another day."

Sherry heard the delicate call of her mother coming from across the street and looked back at Skip, "I have to go home now. Can I visit you tomorrow, Skip?" 

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't."

"Thanks, bye!" 

* * *

Before she could leave, he stopped her and said, "Hey, what's that?"

"What?"

"Behind your ear?"

Quickly reaching behind her ear she felt around but couldn't find anything, "What's wrong? Is it a parasite?"

"No," he moved his hand behind her ear and pulled back to her face, a quarter. She saw it and looked up to him, "How did you do that?"

"That, too, is a story for another day. See ya, Sherry, watch for cars."

She walked backwards from Skip's house, the quarter in her hand, completely mezmerized by the new neighbor and wondering how he had done that, and to a lesser extent, why Old Man Rolf, who had been watching Skip on the porch, had flown back into his own house and was screaming loudly about the apocalypse.

Read and Review Please.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter II

Dinner at the Barr House was always something to look forward to. Especially if you were some form of neanderthal, Sherry joked to herself. It was always meat. Steak or meatloaf or beef tacos or something of the meat family. She sat at the table as her mother sat on the side and her father sat at the head of the table.

Tonight's course was pork chops and salad, everything a growing man could eat, though Sherry wished it was different. After grace, the family began to eat. Her mother, Natalie, dressed in a flowery dress that almost matched her shoulder-length blonde hair that was graying at the roots. Her father, Kevin, was wearing his Peach Creek letter jacket and his short reddish-brown hair was almost unseen except for the pesky few in front that grew back too fast. He looked over at Sherry, "So how was your day, sport?"

"It was good. I tended my makeshift sand village and finished my book about ant farming," she replied, not bothering to look up. He chuckled, that was never his strong-suit, but he felt his kid should be able to do whatever she wanted, since she wasn't the kind for sports. Natalie spoke, "We have a new neighbor, Kev." 

"Oh really? That's great," he swallowed his mouthful, "Maybe the family has a kid Sherry's age who can provide a better playmate than some of the twerps around here."

"Oh no," Sherry replied, "There's no kids. Just a funny man."

"Man? Did you meet him?" Natalie looked at her. Sherry looked up and nodded with a big grin, "Yep, his name's Skip. He's short, walks with a cane, and can do magic."

Kevin rolled his eyes, "Oh great, another freak. This neighborhood only gets weirder as time goes by."

"He's not a freak, daddy, he's a nice man. He seemed to know you."

Kevin looked surprised and sat back, thinking, "Skip...Skip...huh, I don't recall any Skip around here. We'll have to invite him over one of these nights. What's he do for a living?"

"I don't know, all I know is that he had three brothers, but two weren't really his brothers." Sherry responded, looking at her food and then looked at Natalie, "Mommy, how can you have brothers that aren't brothers?"

"He was probably just teasing you."

"I thought so, I'm gonna go over there tomorrow and visit him again," Sherry replied, "Can I be excused?" 

"Of course, sweetheart," Natalie smiled as Sherry got up and took her plate to the dishes. Kevin waited till she was out of the sight and said, "I don't know any Skip. Seriously."

"Dude, it's probably confusion. Maybe he doesn't really know you, but thinks you're someone else. Happens all the time." 

"Yeah, probably," he replied, chuckling and looked at her, "So, what do you say we get to bed early tonight and see if the home team can make a touchdown?"

She smiled, caressing his face and said, "Kev, I hate when you refer to sex like a football game. Goodnight," she stood up and took their plates to the kitchen. He sat back, sighing and tried to remember anyone who could be named Skip. It wasn't a common name and someone with that name wouldn't have eluded his memory so well. There just wasn't any Skip in his past. He shook his head, taking one last gulp of iced tea, and stood up heading to the bedroom. He looked outside of the window and saw a light on at the house where Double-D used to live.

"Them were the days," he chuckled and closed the curtains.

Sherry was up and out of bed before sunrise. She threw on some pants and a t-shirt, quickly heading outside the house and to Skip's house. She walked up and knocked on the door, tapping her foot on the porch, wondering why it was taking Skip so long to answer. She peeked through the window and saw nobody inside the house. Yet his car was still there. Maybe he was sleeping?

She walked backwards until a voice caught her off guard, "Morning Sherry."

She jumped startled and looked to the side to see Skip sitting in a folding lawn chair by the side of the house. He smiled, "Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya." 

"Just startled me really," she walked over to him, "Have you been asleep at all?"

"Not really, tossing and turning all night," he looked at his watch and then finished, "Tends to happen when you wake up without someone to hold onto, but I don't suppose you know about that."

"Yes I do," she replied firmly, "I hug my teddy every night, sometimes I don't think I can sleep without him."

Skip smiled, patting the ground in front of him with his cane, and nodded, "I apologize, I guess you do have an idea."

Sherry walked over to him, "So, why are you outside in the early hours?"

"You mean you don't know?"

"Know what?"

"Know about the sunrise?"

"Uh, I know about the sunrise, it happens everyday."

"True, but have you seen it?"

"No, I'm usually in my room studying or asleep when it happens," she replied, leaning against his car. He smiled at her and nodded. He was wearing back slacks, tan shirt, and a robe over the clothes. His dark hair was unkempt, obviously bed-head. She looked at him, "So what's so-"

"Hold it!" he interrupted and pointed with his cane to the sky. She looked at the direction and watched.

The clouds, a searing pink and purple were suddenly alight as a peering golden wave appeared from beneath the masses above it and the sky seemed to be burning with tremendous beauty that had Sherry had never seen before. It's rays hit her face and she felt a fantastic warmth overcome her small body and the chilly air seemed to disappear before her. Everything was alight with color and she looked over, bewildered, at Skip, whose eyes were wide like he had just been born and a great big smile bore on his face as he watched with great ease at the beauty and majesty of something that people take for granted every day.

This was true beauty. Sherry had seen nature before in her makeshift sand village and the books of old places, but this...this beautiful scene of excellence was before her in the same dreary-suburban life that she had become accustomed to hating. How could she, of great brilliance, never taken the time to really enjoy something of majestic wonder that nature provided free of any charge.

She looked at Skip, who was still smiling, and said, "That was...magnificent."

He looked back at her, "Hehe, I've been around the world, I've been in different countries, been in different cities, slept in so many different beds, and seen so many different nights...but only here, in my childhood home, can I see something that continues to fill me with love every day."

She looked at him with awe and he smiled, "Good morning, Sherry."

"Good morning, Skip."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter III

After the glorious sunrise and relocating inside the house, Sherry sat at the kitchen table as Skip cooked some breakfast. He smiled, "You like eggs?"

"Yes, they're high in protein and good for the body."

"You haven't lived till you've had one of my omelettes," he replied matter of factly. She giggled while looking around and saw a couple of books on the bookshelf, she knew what they were right off the bat, not because she'd read them, but because there was a label on them. How odd is that? She too had a tendency to label her inanimate objects in her room.

She looked at Skip, "Do you label you're stuff?"

"No, I never had the time or energy to keep up with that kind of thing. The guy who lived here before me was the one who filled this house with labels and sticky notes. Every sticky note had a chore listed on it, he often said it was from his parents, but we always knew better." Skip smiled and sat the plate of a golden omelet down in front of her. She smiled up at him, still transfixed to the story that he was telling, "I think in the end, he was just trying make us think he wasn't a perfectionist."

She nodded unsure and took a bite of the omelet, "Wow Skip, this is really good!"

"Yeah, I used to tell people my older brother taught me how to make them, but in reality, I was self-taught in most things. Only thing that good-for-nothing ever taught me was how to scam and how to cheat," he shook his head and started eating his own omelet. Sherry looked at him and said, "So can you tell me a little more about the guy who lived here before you?"

"Sure, what would you like to know?" 

"What was his name?"

"His name was Eddward, with two D's, which is why we called him 'Double-D'. He was my age, had black hair, and was smarter than anyone in the world, well," he smiled at her, "That is, before I met you."

"Eddward? I heard about him from my dad, but I heard he was always an imbecilic person who didn't have any type of intelligence, let alone the grammatical skills to talk properly. And that he suffered from Tourette's and slight mental retardation," Sherry looked at him.

Skip laughed out loudly and shook his head, "He was probably talking about Ed, who was actually named Edmund. He was Sarah Hill's brother, well, you'd have to see it on paper to believe it."

Sherry looked at him and Skip spoke again, "Ed wasn't all there, but he was overprotective and very kind to all of us. I took advantage of that more than once and before long, I knew I was driving him and Double-D away. It all came to a head in the summer of '96."

"Wow," Sherry gulped hard on her eggs, "That was quite a while ago."

"Heh, way to make a guy feel old there, sweetheart," he grinned, causing her to immediately apologize. He shook his head, "No, no, it's fine. I am a tad older than you..."

She smiled and breathed an inner sigh of relief, "You goofy old man."

"Old? I'm only late-forties. Rolf's gotta be in his 50's."

"Yeah, Old Man Rolf is pretty old looking, especially with his beard and eyepatch." she shuddered from the idea, then she paused and looked at him, "Did you know Rolf?"

"Oh, me and stretch go way back. We all used to be kids here in the Culdesac. Of course, that was a long time ago."

"We established that it was," Sherry stated. Skip finished his breakfast and looked at her, "Dessert?"

"Uh sure?"

"Here," he reached in the cabinet and pulled out two very large jawbreakers, she looked at the jawbreaker and said, "That thing is bigger than my head!"

"True, but it shrinks over time," he handed it to her, "Here."

She took it and looked it over, licking it gently, "I think its...blueberry?"

Skip, having already shoved the huge candied orb into his cheek, nodded, "All the way from Slovakia."

Sherry took it and tried to shove it into her mouth, but smacked herself out of the chair and into the floor, "Ouch."

"Oh," Skip reached back in the cabinet and pulled out a smaller case of little jawbusters, "Here, these might be your speed."

Lifting herself back up in her chair, she nodded, rubbing her mouth, "Thank you."

After several minutes in silence, while they enjoyed the candy, Skip had finished and Sherry was still sucking on a Tawain jawbreaker from the case. He watched her and smiled. She looked at him, "What?"

"You know, I first tasted a jawbreaker when I was eight years old," he replied, sitting back in the chair, "Back then, everything was easy. There were no bad kids around, there weren't any fights over money or candy, everyone was gentle...everything was peaceful," he recalled as though it were yesterday, "It was just me and Double-D and Ed back then. We weren't the screwy kids we grew into, well, 'I' grew into. No, back then, we were a real family."

"You talk about them a lot."

"Sorry, they just made my childhood worth living, they were real friends who would look out for you. They would help you. They watched out for you. They made you smile. They made you vomit. They made you the man you'd grow up to be...and I miss those two every day I sit here and think about them," Skip replied, solemnly. Sherry looked at him, she could tell he was prepared to start crying, she worried if she had said too much or said something that was rude without thinking about it. Sometimes she didn't completely think before she opened her mouth. She cleared her throat, "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For acting childish."

"Childish? Sherry, when I was screaming my head off because a scam broke on my own faults and I didn't accept the responsibility, that was childish. You've acted more grown up than any other nine year old I ever met."

"Nine-and-a-half," she corrected with a smirk.

"Exactly, you've got some smarts on you," he smiled, "You remind me of," he paused, standing up and walking to the window. Sherry looked at him, "Of what?"

"I think you're mom needs you," he replied stoically, "She's outside on the porch, I think she's upset."

"Um, okay, can I visit you later, Skip?"

"Sure," he replied halfheartedly, "That'd be nice."

She nodded, headed out the door and walked home. She walked towards her home as Natalie looked up at her and smiled, "Hey little dude, you're up early."

"I was just over at Skip's, he was kind of different today," she replied. Natalie looked at her, "Oh, how so?"

"He kept bringing up some guys, Edmund and Double-D, saying they were his best friends."

Natalie's eyes grew wide and looked at her, "Sherry, do not tell your father anything about that. It's important. Don't say a word."

"Uh okay?"

"Mom you're scaring me," Sherry replied, gulping. Natalie hugged her tightly and kissed her forehead, "Sweetheart, run inside and clean the kitchen for mommy, I'm gonna go see Skip."

"Mom please don't hurt him!"

Natalie looked at Sherry, "Sherr, have I ever hurt anyone?"

"No, but I get scared when you sound like that."

"Oh," Natalie swallowed gently, "I'm just going to go meet him. But sometimes adults need to talk to each other without kids. It's a fact of life."

"I'm well aware of that," she replied, heading inside to clean the kitchen. Natalie stood up, wearing a new flowery dress than the night before and started walking towards Skip's house.

Skip watched her from his window and saw her coming towards the house. He rested on his cane and gulped, shaking his head, "So it begins."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter IV

Natalie walked with force across the culdesac and came up to Skip's door. She rapped her fist on it three times until it was opened. There she saw the man who occupied the house, she looked at him squarely and said, "Eddy?"

Skip looked at her, "I haven't been called that in a long time."

"Oh yeah, Skip," she said, narrowing her eyes, "I thought you would never return here. Now you're talking to Sherry?"

"She just comes to visit, no harm done," he shrugged and sat in the rocking chair, pointing to the sofa, "Sit?"

"Well, at least your manners have gotten better, somewhat," she replied halfheartedly and sat down on the sofa, crossing her legs. She looked at him, his dark hair was graying like hers, but was mostly covered by obvious amounts of dye and his face was plagued by wrinkles and scars. His body was a tad smaller than when he was younger, he was short and tubby, now he was just short and slimmer. The cane in his hand was brown and new, but she couldn't see why he needed it.

He had taken the time to look her over as well. He remembered when she wasn't Natalie Barr, but when she was Nazz Van Bartonschmeer, the prom queen of Peach Creek High, the cheer captain, the princess of the Culdesac. Now she was older, her blonde hair was graying at the roots, he could tell, and she was wearing a tad bit more makeup than when she was a kid. She was still beautiful, even in her middle-ages, she was still so beautiful. He blinked a bit and looked down, his mind rushing back to something he was sure they both could remember. He looked at her, "What's wrong with Sherry coming over here?"

"We made a promise, ten years ago that we wouldn't ever talk about what happened, you and Double-D left," she replied, looking reserved, but glints of anger in her eyes. She looked agt him and said, "If you come back, then I know that Double-D can't be far behind and Ed, well, we don't have to worry about him. I don't want Sherry finding out about Double-D."

"She already knows that Double-D was a friend of mine," Skip looked at her, "He's not coming here."

"What do you mean?"

"Double-D isn't coming back to Peach Creek," Skip said firmly, "He made a promise. Now drop it. I never made that promise. He did, Ed did, I didn't. And what do you care for?"

She stood up, looking at him, "What do you mean by that?"

He stood up and glared at her, "You got your marriage to the big awesome coach, you got your house, you got your happy life. And all you had to do was sellout someone who was better than your husband."

"Shut up."

"He cared about you better than that jerk Kevin ever could," Skip struggled to stay standing on the cane, "Not that you'd ever care."

"Eddy shut the fuck up."

"But it looks like Sherry's paternity is in question. I don't remember either you or Kevin ever having brains. I guess Sherry got a dormant trait...or somebody else's genes altogether."

Anger overtook her and she slapped him hard across the face, the force causing Skip to fall off his cane, swivel down and smash his nose on the corner of the coffee table and lay flat out on the floor. The silence broken by the impact of the slap was now overtaken by the sheer sound of Skip screaming out of pain.

She looked down at him, slightly shocked by what she'd done, but then looked down at him, "Don't ever talk like that about Sherry's father. It's Kevin. It's always been Kevin. Don't ever talk about Double-D to her. You got that? I'll tell her not to come visit you anymore. Put some salt on your nose."

She then yanked open the door and walked out. Skip slowly wiped the blood from his face, only smearing it all over his jaw and cheeks, and raised up to sit while leaning on the coffee table. He was crying, he could feel tears run down his face and mix with the blood off his chin. He'd expected a slap, but apparently, she'd gotten stronger over time. He wondered if she was still able to throw a football harder than any other woman that he'd ever known.

Natalie stomped all the way back across the street to her house and stood on the porch reserving herself back to normal before she went inside. It seemed Sherry was right, she had done exactly what her daughter said she would. Sighing, she sat on one of the steps and tried to regain her composure. Swallowing gently, she reached under the steps and pulled out a pack of cigarettes that she hadn't touched in almost six weeks. Normally she didn't smoke, but this time, she knew she needed one badly. Lighting it with a book of matches inside the pack, she inhaled the cig deeply before releasing it out of her nose and watched the street, silence. She remembered back when she was younger, Kevin would be riding his bike, Jonny and Plank would be playing a one-sided card game, Sarah and Jimmy playing dolls, and Rolf farming with his animals.

It had been years since then, and she couldn't, really see any of that nowadays. Now when things were harder, things were difficult, and things were out of order.

Smashing the cigarette on the step, she stood up and regained her composure. Walking into the house upright, she looked over at Sherry who was reading a book on English Lit, "Sherry, you're not allowed to go back to Skip's house again."

"What?" she dropped the book and looked up at her mom, "That's not fair!"

"What's not fair?"

"You've not given me any reason on why I can't go back to his house."

"How about, because I said no?"

"You can't make me stop going to Skip's house, I promised I would be over later today," she pleaded, but Natalie shook her head, "Life's full of broken promises, trust me, Skip isn't who you think he is."

"Did you hit him?" Sherry looked at her with glaring eyes, Natalie felt them pierce into her and she shook her head, "You're not going back over there and that's final. Go upstairs and...and..."

"Yes?"

"Label your trophy closet! Or something!" 

"I hate you!" Sherry squealed before running upstairs, Natalie grasped Kevin's easy chair and bowed her back, nodding in a whispered agreement, "Yeah, me too."

Sherry ran upstairs and slammed the door in anger. Normally she didn't overreact to some things, but she had her mother's eyes down to a science. She knew when and if her mother was lying about things. And she knew that her mother had hit Skip. Even if he deserved it, Sherry knew that her mom never hit anyone. She knew there was something going on that nobody was telling her. And this mystery was bigger than the Culdesac, but she couldn't ask about it, she knew that if she started asking questions, her mother would kill Skip or Skip would be forced to leave the Culdesac and she'd never find out what was going on.

She knew she had to go somewhere else to get answers, so she would.


End file.
